Homemade Bacon-Caramel Corn

Surprisingly, it is rather tasty — I had my doubts when I had first made it because I am kind of overwhelmed by the amount of bacon-ness still going on in the world right now, but it works.

Homemade Bacon-Caramel Corn

The original recipe is a Spicy Bacon-Caramel Popcorn from A Cozy Kitchen and what I had intended on making was actually just a spicy caramel corn, omitting the bacon entirely, but after discussing my intentions with a few people, including The Hubbs, I discovered that people much prefer a sweet’n’salty combo to a sweet’n’spicy one. There was a little bit of disappointment on my part, but in the end, since I wasn’t exactly making the popcorn for me but for the D&D Crew, I figured I should probably go with the popular vote.

Surprisingly, other than the omission of the cayenne pepper in the recipe, I followed it almost exactly as written and I am still absolutely amazed at how well it turned out. Homemade caramel corn is super easy to make! Who knew!? I did choose to air-pop my corn as opposed to doing it on the stove with oil, but that was purely laziness and preference on my part. Beyond that, fry up a few slices of bacon and the most complicated step is making the caramel itself, but I have done that on numerous occassions now so I no longer fear the molten hot sugar… not that I ever did, really.

ANYHOW. The original recipe I have linked above, and below will be the recipe with the changes I made.

Preheat oven to 400F
Cook bacon for 15 minutes in oven until crispy and brown.
Drain bacon on paper towels to drain and when cooled enough, cut into small pieces and set aside.
Coat 2 silicone spatulas and a large mixing bowl with cooking spray. Set aside
Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside as well.
Pop your popcorn however you like and transfer it to the oiled bowl, making sure to remove any unpopped kernels.
In a large pot, cook the water, sugar, butter, salt, over medium-high heat without stirring, until the mixture becomes a light golden brown.
Remove from the heat and quickly but very carefully whisk in the baking soda. Be careful because this WILL foam up something huge (which is why you’re using that big pot, right? Right?)
Quickly fold the bacon bits into the caramel and pour everything over the popcorn and toss it all together until it’s evenly coated.
Pour the popcorn onto the cookie sheets and quickly flatten & separate it all into small pieces while it is still warm.
Cool to room temperature and store in an airtight container.